BOSTON (WHDH) - More people in Massachusetts are being advised to wear masks while indoors in public places even if they are vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance Monday to include nine Massachusetts counties, which is up from five counties last week.
According to CDC data collected during the week that ended Saturday, Barnstable and Nantucket counties are in the “high” transmission rate category.
Bristol, Essex, Hampden, Middlesex, Plymouth, Suffolk and Worcester counties are in the “substantial” zone.
The CDC had looked at the Provincetown outbreak following the Fourth of July holiday to update its COVID-19 safety guidance.
About 900 people contracted the virus in the outbreak, with most of those infected having already been vaccinated.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky says with only seven hospitalizations, this outbreak proves that vaccines are working.
“Our vaccines did exactly what they were supposed to do, prevent severe disease, hospitalization, and death,” she said.
Provincetown officials say the vaccine is on its way to being contained with less than 60 active cases left among residents.
Across the state, cases are climbing.
The seven-day average is about 572 cases compared to an average of 64 cases on June 25.
That is a nearly 900 percent increase over those weeks.
Health officials say hospitalizations in Mass. have risen in the past two weeks from 80 to nearly 200.
Walensky is warning the public about how contagious the delta variant can be.
“If you get sick with the Delta variant, we estimate you could infect about five other unvaccinated people – more than twice as many as the original strain,” she said.
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